Takeout Import

About

This tool migrates a Google Photos library into Immich, a self-hosted photo management system. It downloads a Google Takeout export, recovers timestamps and GPS coordinates from the JSON sidecar files Google includes, deduplicates, and organises photos into a date-based folder structure on NAS storage that Immich watches as an external library. Inspired by this write-up on building a robust self-hosted photo system.

Tools used

  • GooglePhotosTakeoutHelper (gpth) — matches JSON sidecars to media files, writes EXIF timestamps & GPS, deduplicates within the export
  • Elodie — organises imported files into YYYY/MM/ folders by EXIF date
  • immich-exif — ensures Immich reads corrected EXIF data from the external library

After migration

Once all Google Photos are imported, Immich becomes the sole photo system. Google Photos can be disabled. New photos taken on mobile are synced directly to Immich via the mobile app, bypassing Google entirely. The NAS external library (/data/files/nas/photos) remains the canonical on-disk store — Immich indexes it but the files are managed by Elodie's folder structure. Restic backups cover both the NAS photos and Immich's database, so nothing depends on Google's infrastructure.

1. Google Cookies  Not loaded

While logged into Google, export cookies for google.com using your browser's extension, then upload the file here.
Chrome: Get cookies.txt LOCALLY  ·  Firefox: cookies.txt

2. Get Takeout URLs

Go to takeout.google.com, navigate to your export, then paste the page URL below. The service will fetch it using your stored cookies and extract the download links automatically.

3. Import

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